Walking The Walk

Emma defending her "snow fort" long after her brother Scooter loses interest in occupying it.   You know it's coming. The weather app has been refreshed approximately 47 times in the last hour. The meteorologist on TV is using words like "significant accumulation" and "travel not advised," which in snow-speak means "here it comes!" And suddenly, everyone in town has the same brilliant idea: I better go to the grocery store. Right now. As if we're preparing to survive on French toast for the next three weeks.   The grocery store looks like a Black Friday sale. Grown adults are speed-walking toward the dairy aisle. Someone's cart has five gallons of milk. Five!  We are terrible at stopping. Absolutely terrible. Even when we know rest is coming, we resist. We try to cram 47 tasks into the final hours before the universe forces us to sit down. It's almost like we're afraid of what might happen if we actually had to be still for ...

I’ll never forget my first day of seminary.  God called me to begin preparing for ministry just about the time I began thinking I’d be able to retire from my career in a few years. At first I tried to ignore it, but it quickly became clear that God’s plan for me didn’t involve fishing every day—well, at least not in the way I thought of fishing at the time. So I enrolled in seminary to begin preparing for this unknown and undefined mission God seemed to be pointing me towards. I was fifty-two years old when I walked into that first class—and I was late, which was very unusual for me. Every head turned when I walked in, and every student in that class was a fresh-faced twenty-something.  I remember thinking I have kids older than these kids.  I walked across the back of the room to find a place to sit, and suddenly, the instructor stopped and looked at me.  “We’re going to be in here until 9 or so. I’d prefer it if you would come back and clean the room after we’r...

If corgis could read, I'd have Emma read Mark 10: 32-45 because she always thinks somebody should be serving her night and day! I lead a weekly Bible study at a local coffee shop on Wednesdays, and this week we were looking at Mark 10: 32-45.   This morning, w e had a really remarkable conversation about our tendency to put ourselves first.   In these verses, we find Jesus walking with his disciples toward Jerusalem, and two of his closest friends, James and John, come to him with what might be the boldest request in history. They say, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask." Then they drop the bomb, "Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory."   Can you imagine that? These guys wanted the VIP seats in Jesus' kingdom! They wanted to be his right-hand men, the ones with the most power and prestige. It's like walking up to your boss and saying, "Hey, when you get that promotion, can we be your vice presid...